This month, Junipero Serra High School in Gardena held a pep rally to celebrate the achievements of what may be the least conventional team: the Advanced Space Team.
Seniors Isaiah Dunn, Christopher Holbert, Travis Leonard, Anderson Pecot and Henry Toler, junior Keith Davie and freshman Jonathan Cruz led their classmates through the 3D printing experiment they sent into orbit on the International Space Station. Their classmates, meanwhile, did what they usually do at pep rallies: they cheered, asked questions and, because it was a Catholic school, prayed.
The team members want to do more than just push the boundaries of knowledge. They also hope the school will become a top place to study science.
“We’re going to be the pioneers,” Leonard, 17, said. “We will be the founders who started a new path for Serra students.”
The team is conducting its second experiment, conducted in the space station’s microgravity conditions. The current one was launched on March 21 aboard the SpaceX Falcon 9 CRS-30 Rocket from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida and docked with the International Space Station two days later.
The experiment involves injecting a light-activated resin into a 3D-printed mold of a Lego brick. The resin is then exposed to UV light so that it hardens. The goal is to compare the physical and chemical properties of the object created in space with those of an identical object created on the ground.
Kenneth Irvine, chairman of the school’s science department and advisor to the team, said the group used a 3D printer on campus to print the parts for the printer sent into space. “While our experiment takes place in space, we will conduct a parallel experiment here.”
The goal of the project, Holbert says, is to one day allow the space station to print replacements for things that break on board, such as fasteners or tools, instead of having to ship them from Earth.
“The goal is to get to a point where we can reliably 3D print in space, which would save thousands of dollars per part,” Holbert said.
According to Georgetown University, the cost of launching an object on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket has fallen from $10,000 per kilogram in 2009 to somewhere between $1,520 and $2,500 today. But that’s still expensive; even sending a few bolts weighing a tenth of a pound each would cost between $138 and $227 to fly into space. Hence the interest in making replacements in orbit.
“What’s so exciting is that this is a 100% student-driven project that we believe will help NASA and the private sector better understand space,” said Serra President John Moran. “There aren’t many other schools, let alone high schools, that are advancing our knowledge of space.”
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Serra, along with Santa Ana Calvary Chapel, is one of nine national high schools participating in San José’s Quest Institute for Quality Education’s International Space Station program.
The school has received $50,000 in grants from the Ahmanson Foundation to participate in the program, Moran said. The school has also benefited from the use of the Makers Space, laboratories, materials and professional guidance from engineers from the USC Viterbi School of Engineering, as most team members there are part of the junior chapter of the National Society of Black Engineers.
Last year, the space team studied the germination rate of Wisconsin Fast Plants in space.
So far, NASA has not received any word on how the 3D printing experiment is going.
“We’ll all be waiting for updates,” said Toler, whose role is to ensure the experiment can survive the rigors of space travel. “I think it’s great to have something in the space now.”
What has impressed Irvine and Moran about the team is the members’ ability to combine space work with a range of academic and extracurricular tasks.
Holbert, who will attend Loyola Marymount in the fall, is president of the chess club, a member of the school’s football and garden teams and is in the robotics and engineering clubs.
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Leonard, who is undecided between USC and Howard University, plays football and is a member of the Grace, gardening, robotics and coding clubs. He is also a school ambassador.
Toler plays basketball and golf, while Dunn, who will play American football in Italy is involved in the school’s literary review next year, is chairman of the writing club and plays football, soccer and rugby.
Cruz, the only freshman, is majoring in coding and robotics.
“They’re just an incredible group that is very dedicated to themselves and the work,” Irvine said.
On Monday, the space team was honored on the California Senate floor in Sacramento by Senator Steven Bradford (D-Gardena).
Bradford noted that Serra is the first inner-city school whose students are predominantly non-white to participate in the International Space Station program.
“This is part of the school’s ongoing efforts to strengthen STEM education for all students, especially the underserved students in South Los Angeles,” Bradford said in a statement. “These students I honor are incredibly talented scientists, and it is a privilege to have them recognized by the California Senate.”
While team members are proud of their achievements in space, they all mentioned the excitement of knowing they have sparked interest in STEM and space studies at Serra and in surrounding communities.
“We have a number of freshmen coming in next year just because of this program,” Dunn said. “It used to be just for football and sports. Now we have students who want to be part of our space program. It’s incredible.”
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This story originally appeared in the Los Angeles Times.